Last year, my aunt of nearly 65 years was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer for which there was no cure and no effective treatment outside of chemo.
After a number of chemo treatments, the cancer subsided, then returned. She was faced with the inevitable; she was going to die.
Those gathered at her side watched a woman we love fade away peacefully in the tender care of health professionals who did not assist in her death, but rather, provided pain management and a wonderful bedside manner. Anything less would have been undignified.
To the source from your recent story (‘Debating the right to die’ The NEWS, Nov. 25), if you wish to kill yourself when your condition becomes unbearable for you, please do not involve doctors, for two reasons: 1. they have taken an oath to do no harm; and 2. they already feel emboldened to impose their will on you or your family when they deem that your life has no quality.
MP James Lunney is right. The worst thing we could do is create another mechanism for killing people. Worse yet would be placing doctors in charge of it.
John ChambersParksville